Risk taker Blanchette embraces opportunity

If you’ve ever thought of  jumping from a plane, serial entrepreneur Steve Blanchette has some advice: Do it. Do it now. But, if you’re thinking about investing in automation, go talk to Dan. Dan is Blanchette’s sobriquet for digital native millennials — the types of workers he thinks will shepherd the plastics industry into the future. Now 46, Blanchette was once a young go-getter, too. Rather than going to college, the French-Canadian went into the Canadian infantry and then started building what’s become a portfolio of companies — all before turning 30. He recently shared his experiences with Karen Hanna, Plastics Machinery & Manufacturing senior staff writer.  

How did you get your professional start in industry? 

Blanchette: I left the army to start with CFM. I started buying shares from the founder around 20 years ago. I have been involved in every aspect of that business. At that time, we were doing installations of custom dedicated machinery, generally called hard automation.  

At a certain time, I said to my partner, "We have to do robotic projects.” 

A couple of days later, I said to him, "When we build custom machines, there's one sure thing: They never work as expected. We fix and re-engineer subsystems until they function correctly, and then we deliver the equipment. Why don't we do the same with robotics? We can build stand-alone robotic cells and do the startup at our facility. Once fully operational, we'll deliver them." My partner said, "You're right, let's do it." When we delivered our first robotic cell, we only needed three days for installation and startup. From then on, we knew this was the way to export and sell large volumes of robotic cells. 

I found the first customer, Mi-integration in Quebec. We spent two to three days at their facility and we [were] up and running. At that time, I felt we were onto something big. From there, 20 years ago, we’ve started doing every project on that basis — self-standing, mobile, with casters ... and feet — and then we grew with that business. And then five years ago, I did a spinoff of these products — standard robotic cells — into DIY Robotics, which targets two different customers. We target the end users — let’s say, Tier 2, Tier 1 or OEMs who have their own robotic team, they already have a couple of robotic cells and can [complete] the robotic [project] in-house. We offer them a standard, modular and configurable robotic cell, so they can start a robotic project at, let’s say, 70 percent of achievement, instead of starting at a blank page.  

We also target integrators. There’s a lot of integrators out there who have the same labor lack [of] every manufacturer, and, so, integrators see the potential of using DIY Robotics as a project starter, and spend their time and invest their resources [to contribute] the plus value that they can have, their expertise.  

They can move modules. They can arrange the cell the way they want. At that point, they just have to do the end-of-arm tooling, the programming ... the fancy stuff where they can add value, and they can move [many] more projects per year using DIY Robotics [rather] than starting from scratch. 

What robots do you work with? 

Blanchette: It’s our own cells. We integrate Fanuc and ABB robots. We’re one of the biggest Fanuc integrators in Canada. We did 100 robotic cells last year. That permits us to always have inventory, great price [for] our product, and then we can offer really great discounts to our integrators. 

Does that allow them to deliver projects more quickly? 

Blanchette: Two things: They can deliver projects faster, and they can do more projects in a year. They can also preserve their cash flow. We offer delivery around three to six weeks, so it’s as fast and sometimes faster than just buying the robot.  

You’re also involved in ClariProd, which makes a simplified machine-monitoring solution in partnership with Windmill Plastics. How did that come about? 

Blanchette: Frank [Desrosiers, co-owner of Windmill Plastics] was one of my great customers. At that time, I think he owned probably 15 of our robotic cells. One time I visited them on the floor, and Frank told me, “We’re looking for a different solution for MES, and we’re not really satisfied about what we found in the market. Can you do for us [a] custom solution?" I said, “All my customers are in the plastics industry, mainly injection molding, and I saw so many customers trying to do custom solutions. And it’s all a nightmare. So, I will not do that for you, because our core business is robotics.” But I said, “I’ve [got] a good idea about what could fit into the market. Because they all have the same issue. They don’t find a solution specific for plastic and no one has only one machine brand, no one has only up-to-date machines that can be connected. So there’s definitely a lack in the plastics industry for a solution. If you want, we can start the business together and then you’ll have the pilot plant, and we’ll build around that with our team.” So we [started] ClariProd at that time, five years ago. ... So, as you can figure, I’m really busy.  

What interests you most about your businesses? Is it the plastics side of the business, or the entrepreneurial aspects? Something else?  

Blanchette: I grew [up in] an entrepreneurial family. That’s my roots. That began with automation. At the age of 8 years old, I was already dismantling the lawnmower of my father and then reassembling it and making it run. At 10 years old, I was doing automation in my house with a Commodore 64. It was really basic, but with my Commodore, I was able to open window curtains [and control] my black-and-white TV volume. My parents were always saying, let’s say, at my birthday, Christmas, they’d give a lot of gifts and toys and things like that, they were always saying, “Promise you will not open it and dismantle it.” I was like, “Yes, yes, I promise.” But every time, I dismantled my toys. 

How big are your customers? 

Blanchette: We have small customers, but we mainly target Tier 2, Tier 1 and OEMs. But there’s some small companies where people are interested in robotics, and with DIY Robotics, they can do simple projects. There’s a lot of millennials, they can definitely do some simple integration. The way DIY is developing the market is based on two personas:  “Rej” [as in Rejean] is the [baby] boomer, the company owner. Rej’s first question is, “How much will it cost?” Rej [made] a lot of sacrifices, was focused on building the company. DIY is do-it-yourself, so the main person for DIY Robotics is “Dan.” Dan is a millennial engineer. He doesn’t necessarily know how to do robotic projects but how to find the information. Our video tutorial on YouTube — it’s a simple configuration tool and calculator online, on DIY Robotics [website], we offer all these. There’s a forum. There’s a large community where Dan can ask questions and sometimes really quickly receive an answer from some other member of the community of DIY Robotics. It’s a lot of people who share their knowledge. Back in time, our business was kind of a secret business; no one wanted to tell others their secrets, how they do what they do. But, now, it’s so different. Everyone can program a robot, so why keep that information secret? We decided to put tutorials, training documentation, payload calculators, all these tools that we were using, we decided to put it on our website to feed [to] Dan out there. Once Dan is sufficiently informed and when Dan feels he will have the support to do a project, Dan will sell [internally] ... will say, “Hey, Rej, you know what? We can buy that cell and I will program it,” because these millennials don’t want to cut steel, and do painting, welding and assembly. They just want to receive the cell, take the joystick and start playing with that toy.  

Do you think the industry as a whole is doing enough to reach out to the next generation? 

Blanchette: I think it’s much easier to find these young, brilliant people than finding someone who will do the same [task] each and every 20th second — that kind of labor is actually pretty hard to find. Many years ago, people [were] hired into a company and their job was to take that part and put it into the machine, push the button. They stayed. It was that generation. But, now, if you have to do that kind of work, you’ll have a hard time to find workers and a much [harder] time to keep them doing that job because people don’t want that kind of job. So it’s much easier now and in the future to find young, brilliant people who can do that kind of work with a robot cell, than having people working like robots. 

What do you like to do outside of work? 

Blanchette: Since COVID, I stopped doing these [hobbies], but I was doing closed-circuit car racing [with an] AMG Mercedes [and] skydiving, 50-60 times, some days, five or six [times] per day. And I have two daughters, [ages] 14 and 19. 

What compels people to jump out of perfectly good airplanes? 

Blanchette: When I was young, I said many times, at a certain moment, I will do that. I said that many times and I understood then saying I will do that, without a fixed date, it will just never happen. Understanding life could be really short — it can end tomorrow — I felt that I have to do that thing that I said many times that I will do in the future. I decided to go there and take a jump. I was really excited and really loved it.  

What would you say to someone contemplating giving it a try? 

Steve Blanchette: It’s definitely something to do, at least once. If you think you could be interested in that, don’t think about it. Let’s say you're driving Saturday and stop by a drop zone, pay and do it right away. If you buy your ticket for a couple of weeks later, you will have time to change your mind and be scared. Once it’s done, you’ll be really excited, but the best thing is to drop by and do it. 

How would you like to be remembered? 

Blanchette: My main value is being honest. I definitely want people remembering me as someone who [has] been honest and did things right. That’s what drives me, and that’s also what can really affect me. If I disappoint someone, that’s definitely something [that] makes me sad and worry about the situation.  

I’m still with my first customer.  

It’s not always easy. We do custom projects and sometimes they really don’t work as they’re supposed [to]. Sometimes, there’s some delay, sometimes we explode the budget, but we [absorb] it on our own, and we do the job until the end.  

Since 29 years and thousands of projects, no one out there can say they don’t get what they bought. Some cases at the end, we go to the customer and we say, “You know what? We had a lot of issues. We’ve spent a lot of money, can you help? You can say no, and it’s fine because we give you a price and you buy at that price.” A couple of times, we did that and I [sat] with customers explaining the situation, [and] they said, “We’ll help.” Generally, people are honest and understand. People can take the place of the other when it’s well-explained.